Thursday, October 14, 2010

Artists and documentation



Recently an artist decided to visually depict how a Mc Donald’s hamburger and fries does not decompose. The full story can be found here. I think it is interesting that it was an artist that decided to illustrate this point, and I also think she did a nice job.



The idea was to keep a McDonald’s burger and fries, and photograph it each day. It has been six months and there has been no change in the way the food looks; no mold, no breakdown, nothing.



This was a very effective way of making the point that this food is not in any way healthy. Artists have historically documented ideas and experiments, but it has been centuries since this role has had a significant impact. The reaction from the public, as well as from the corporate offices of McDonald’s has been swift. I’m not saying artists should look for ways to anger or frustrate people, but I do think they have a responsibility to get people thinking and talking, and this project did exactly that.

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